Colorado Capitol
Economic Development Council of Colorado
Public Policy Update 
March 8, 2009
In This Issue
Governor Ritter to Sign SB 09-108
Colorado General Assembly
Economic Development Legislation
Spotlight on Adams County
Colorado Economic Leadership Coalition - Next Meeting is Friday, March 13 at noon.
EDCC Legislative Real-Time Update
Governor Ritter to Sign SB 09-108 - FASTER
Governor Bill Ritter will sign SB 09-108, the transportation funding legislation, on Monday, March 2 at 1 pm at the southwest corner of I-25 and 84th Avenue.  Senator Dan Gibbs and Representative Joe Rice, the primary sponsors of the legislation, will join the Governor for the signing.  The public is invited to attend.
 
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Greetings!
You are receiving this newsletter from the EDCC because of your interest in and commitment to a strong and healthy Colorado economy.  The Board of EDCC hopes that you find this information to be helpful, informative and of value to you and your colleagues.  Please feel free to pass along this newsletter as appropriate. 
Colorado General Assembly
is in full operation.  Monday, March 2 will be the 55th Legislative Day of the constitutionally limited 120 day session.  You can see the Deadline Schedule for the 2009 Colorado General Assembly. 
 
The Senate will vote this week on SB 09-228, Concerning Flexibility to Use State Revenues .  The bill deals with the Arveschoug-Bird limit.  Arveschoug-Bird was a statutory limit passed by the General Assembly in 1991 in an effort to head off the passage of TABOR, a constitutional limit on revenues and spending which passed in 1992.  (See "Confluence of Colorado's Constitutional Spending Rules",  "The Arveschoug-Bird Spending Limit" and "OLLS Memorandum on Arveschoug-Bird").  Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll has vowed to "slow the bill down" a little as it moves to the House.  Also of interest is a paper produced by the Bell Policy Center entitled "The Road to 2009".  It is a brief (2 pages) description of the many events that have taken place over the years which have contributed to the financial constraints of the state.
  
HB 09-1293, the Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act will be heard in the House HHS Committee on Friday, March 13 at 1 pm. The bill will use revenue from a new hospital provider fee to cover more than 100,000 uninsured Coloradans through Medicaid and CHP+, increase hospital reimbursement rates under Medicaid and the Colorado Indigent Care Program (CICP), as well as pay the administrative costs of the program.
 
The Joint Budget Committee will begin work on the FY 2009-10 buget in the coming week.
 
Remember that you can listen to live audio broadcasts of the floor sessions and committee meetings through links on the home page of the Colorado General Assembly.  If you have access to Comcast cable television, the floor sessions of the Colorado House are broadcast live and then repeated frequently on Channel 165.
 

Economic Development Legislation - New Bill on Trucking (HB 09-1298)
 
HB 09-1001, Concerning an Income Tax Credit for Colorado Job Growth.  The bill has now passed the full House of Representatives and is awaiting committee hearing in the Senate on Wednesday, March 11 at 1:30.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
HB 09-1010, Concerning Film Production in Colorado, passed from the House Finance Committee to the Appropriations Committee.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
HB 09-1035, Concerning Clean Tech Medical Device Tax Refund, has passed from the House Finance Committee to the Appropriations Committee. The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
HB 09-1105, Concerning Innovation Investment Tax Credit, passed from the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee and the House Finance Committee. The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
HB 09-1298, concerning sales & use tax and enterprise zone tax credits for the trucking industry.  The bill is scheduled for hearing in the House Finance Committee on March 18. 
SB 09-016, Concerning Measures to Encourage the Reforestation of Forest Areas Affected by Bark Beetle Infestation has passed the Senate on February 18 and will be heard in the House Ag Committee on Wednesday morning.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
SB 09-031, Concerning Clean Tech Research Grant Program  has passed the Senate and is awaiting hearing in the House on Tuesday, March 17.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
SB 09-067, Concerning the Colorado Credit Reserve Program  has passed from the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee to the Appropriations Committee. The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
SB 09-076, Concerning Employment and Training Technology has passed the Senate and is awaiting hearing in the House. The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
SB 09-085, Concerning the Phase-Out of Business Personal Property Tax has passed the Senate Finance Committee to the Appropriations Committee.  The EDCC Board will continue to monitor this bill and engage in dialogue with the proponents and opponents.
 
B 09-162, Concerning a Project to Create an Inventory of Broadband Service Areas, has now passed the Senate and will be heard in the House Business Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.
SB 09-177, Concerning the Valuation of New Solar Energy Facilities for the Purpose of Property Taxation.  The EDCC Board has endorsed this bill.  
SB 09-233, Concerning the Entrepreneurial Uses of Property for Property Tax Purposes.  This bill comes from the Jobs Committee and has not been scheduled for hearing.
SB 09-234, Concerning Enterprise Zone Recommendations to the General Assembly.  This bill also comes from the Jobs Committee. 
Most of the bills listed above have been vetted by the Joint Select Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth.  The Committee will meet next on February 27 at noon.
 
 
As of close of business on Friday, March 6, the legislature had introduced 304 House bills and 244 Senate bills - a total of 548 of the expected 600-650 bills that we will see in 2009.  Leadership in both houses have indicated that they will not be approving as many late bill requests as in past years. 
Update on the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 
(Information provided by SSTI)
Federal Agencies Set Up Recovery Websites
As instructed by the White House Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 17, at least 25 of the federal agencies that received funding through the Recovery Act have created recovery webpages to allow easier access for potential grantees to the funding opportunities available through the act. In addition, OMB believes the sites will help keep the distribution process as transparent and trackable as possible. OMB also is maintaining a master recovery site, http://www.recovery.gov/ to monitor overall progress of the stimulus bill.
Links to 25 agency recovery websites are available at: http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/agencies.
We also have included a link to some information provided by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) that may be of interest.  It concerns the February unemployment report.  The report states that, "....For the recovery law to stem the tide of job losses and lay the groundwork for a strong recovery as quickly and effectively as possible, federal, state, and local governments have to get programs up and running quickly. In particular, states must use the money that Congress provided to them as intended so that it will have maximum effectiveness as stimulus."
The March 13 meeting of the Colorado Economic Leadership Coalition (CELC), mentioned below, will feature Russ George, former Speaker of the Colorado House and currently Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Transportation and Susan Kirkpatrick, Executive Director of the Department of Local Affairs.  They will be discussing the ARRA stimulus funds available to and in Colorado, how the funds will be allocated and the process for becoming a participant in the allocation process, either as a local government or as a contractor.  This will be an extremely valuable and informative meeting!

EDCC Legislative Update 
 
The weekly update on legislation that is being monitored or actively lobbied by EDCC is available online at EDCC Legislative Update.  Please remember to bookmark this website and then you can check the status of any of the bills at any time, with real-time updates.  We hope that this bill-tracking service provided to you by EDCC is of value.  If there are bills that are not included but you feel should be, please contact dtomlinson@msn.com with the bill number.  Thanks! 
 

 

Colorado Economic Leadership Coalition 
Colorado Capitol 
The Colorado Economic Leadership Coalition (CELC) normally meets on the 2nd Friday of each month during the legislative session, at a location near the State Capitol.
 
The CELC met on January 16 at the Colorado Municipal League.  Notes from that meeting are available.
 
 
The next meeting of the CELC will be on Friday, March 13 at noon. The meeting will be held in the CACI Boardroom, 10th Floor at 1600 Broadway. Our speakers for the meeting will be CDOT Executive Director Russ George and DOLA Executive Director Susan Kirkpatrick.  They will be discussing the federal stimulus legislation and how you can become involved in the process.
 
 Please RSVP to Michelle at malcott21@comcast.net  so that we will have enough lunches. We sincerely hope you can join us for this meeting of the CELC.  With the economy being foremost on the minds of the legislators and people of Colorado, we're sure to have some interesting and informative discussion about plans to stimulate the Colorado economy.   The CELC is under the sponsorship of the Economic Development Council of Colorado.  Lunch is being sponsored this month by Preston Gibson and the Jefferson Economic Council.  Thanks, Preston!
 
CELC has no dues - we are a group of folks interested in creating and maintaining a healthy, vibrant economy in Colorado and routinely discuss potential legislative ideas, regulatory change and other issues that will assist in that goal.
 
Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to attend - either Danny at dtomlinson@msn.com or Michelle at malcott21@comcast.net 

Sincerely,
 

Danny Tomlinson
Tomlinson & Associates on behalf of the EDCC
EDCC  The Economic Development Council of Colorado (EDCC) is a state-wide, non-profit organization dedicated to successful, responsible economic development.  EDCC professionally represents the collective economic development interests of both the private and public sectors.  Our mission is to strategically retain, expand and attract primary employers.  EDCC is committed to an equitable and balanced public/private partnership and to growing the economic climate of Colorado to the mutual benefit of employees, employers, governments and citizens.